NVIDIA Announces Grace CPU For ARM-Based AI/HPC Processor

[kpedersen]

The Age of ARM is here. x86 is legacy.

Can we get a few more "open" ARM devices before x86 magically disappears please.

Especially Laptops and PCs so I can run more than just an AppStore and a web browser.

Otherwise it will be a little bit like C. Everyone says it is old and obsolete but... well it is basically the entire computing platform.

[drakonas777]

400 EURO:

x86: i5 11400, decent B560 board, 16 gigs 3600 CL16.
ARM: Shit tier SBC with dated and slow ARM cores (4x cortex A72/73 + 4x53 ), 4-8 gigs DDR4 and non-standard board with inferior peripheral support. (some garbage Qualcomm android dev kit most likely).

Age of ARM indeed

Point being: there is literally no ARM alternative to mainstream x86 desktop platform, and I won't give a rat ass about ARM until it is. AGE of non existing consumer high performance and affordable ARM

[ezst036]

The Age of ARM is here. x86 is legacy.

Not so fast. X86 still has a significant infrastructure advantage. Where's your ATX and ITX boards at?

x86 ?? Check...mate.

Not yet. When Gigabyte and MSI and Asrock are producing mainstream boards with an ARM-D-LGA2021 socket on them, that's the end.

When you see an Asus Fatal1ty ARM board or MSI ARM Creator, take your pick. Until you get the boards, ARM are boutique products and nothing more.

What would really kill X86 fast is if you could pop an ARM chip into your existing 1151 pin Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X motherboard or your Asus ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha X399 motherboard like in the socket 7 days. With a simple BIOS flash, and ARM just automagically works on what you already have. I welcome the day when AMD makes AM4 ARM chips. But I don't see them yet.

There's a lot of infrastructure, going down to the 24-pin motherboard power connector that a lot of people would not be willing to throw overboard just to get rid of x86. If ARM wants to be the future they'll be forced to comply. There's a dangerous headwind into the proprietary wilderness of forced obsolescence that we will all want to avoid.

[vegabook]

400 EURO:

x86: i5 11400, decent B560 board, 16 gigs 3600 CL16.
ARM: Shit tier SBC with dated and slow ARM cores (4x cortex A72/73 + 4x53 ), 4-8 gigs DDR4 and non-standard board with inferior peripheral support. (some garbage Qualcomm android dev kit most likely).

Age of ARM indeed

Point being: there is literally no ARM alternative to mainstream x86 desktop platform, and I won't give a rat ass about ARM until it is. AGE of non existing consumer high performance and affordable ARM

Jetson AGX Xavier is 699 USD with 8 fairly modern Denver cores, 512 CUDA cores, plenty of tensor cores, 32GB or RAM, nvme SSD capability, and PCIE expansion slot. Still got a few problems but it's getting mighty close. You can most definitely use this a full performance Linux desktop and the only thing you'll really be missing is gaming.

EDIT: The cores are not Denver (as per TX2), they're its successor "Carmel".

[drakonas777]

Jetson AGX Xavier is 699 USD with 8 fairly modern Denver cores, 512 CUDA cores, plenty of tensor cores, 32GB or RAM, nvme SSD capability, and PCIE expansion slot. Still got a few problems but it's getting mighty close. You can most definitely use this a full performance Linux desktop and the only thing you'll really be missing is gaming.

Perhaps, but it's 699USD, which means it will cost around 1000 euros for me with all import taxes and shipping (I live in baltic area). x86 still has far better price/performance ratio for me, functionality also. And "for me" part applies for a lot of non-US markets I imagine. But even in US we are talking some 3700X/11700 CPU+MB+RAM combo at this price. I doubt Xavier can do much against that in a context of ARM performance specifically.

[schmidtbag]

The Age of ARM is here. x86 is legacy.

Ugh enough with this cringy tag line...

[TemplarGR]

ARM will not replace x86 on the desktop in the foreseeable future, period. Don't count on it. Everything else is just irrelevant fanboism.

[wizard69]

If it doesn't run in a laptop (or maybe a desktop) I can't say I have a lot of interest. I'm not a big fan of NVidia but if they could get the market, in general, to look at ARM differently it could be a very good thing. Unfortunately I'm not sure NVidia has the mentality to really be successful with ARM. They sorta represent the opposite of what ARM has been up till now.

[ms178]

Not so fast. X86 still has a significant infrastructure advantage. Where's your ATX and ITX boards at?



Not yet. When Gigabyte and MSI and Asrock are producing mainstream boards with an ARM-D-LGA2021 socket on them, that's the end.

When you see an Asus Fatal1ty ARM board or MSI ARM Creator, take your pick. Until you get the boards, ARM are boutique products and nothing more.

What would really kill X86 fast is if you could pop an ARM chip into your existing 1151 pin Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X motherboard or your Asus ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha X399 motherboard like in the socket 7 days. With a simple BIOS flash, and ARM just automagically works on what you already have. I welcome the day when AMD makes AM4 ARM chips. But I don't see them yet.

There's a lot of infrastructure, going down to the 24-pin motherboard power connector that a lot of people would not be willing to throw overboard just to get rid of x86. If ARM wants to be the future they'll be forced to comply. There's a dangerous headwind into the proprietary wilderness of forced obsolescence that we will all want to avoid.

I'd like to see how Nvidia/ARM handles this problem in the future, I hope there will be a unified ARM 125W max destkop platform (and maybe a smaller one for mATX) with multiple ARM-CPU vendors. Just as in the Socket 7 days. If each vendor comes up with their own solution, platform fragmentation would be a mess.

[wizard69]

ARM will not replace x86 on the desktop in the foreseeable future, period. Don't count on it. Everything else is just irrelevant fanboism.

Yet I sit here running an M1 based Mac Book Air that is as good as my high end desktop and runs all the software I need to run on a laptop. The future is already here, it just requires people to swallow the right pill and wake up from their coma.